A Brief History of Conversational Hypnosis

A Brief History of Conversational Hypnosis

It is important to know the history of
conversational hypnosis because it came about over
the course of over 100 years. Several people
contributed to the vast amount of knowledge that
has now become conversational hypnosis. 

It is important to point out that not one doctor or
psychologist came up with the idea of
conversational hypnosis. Rather, it was a sort of
evolution that was created by many over the years.

The first major scientist to contribute to the
fascinating topic of conversational hypnosis was
Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov was perhaps most well known for
the term “conditioning.” Pavlov taught dogs to
associate food with the ringing of a bell. The dogs
would salivate when given the food. Overtime,
Pavlov exposed the dogs to the food and would ring
a bell at the same time. When the food was taken
away and only the bell was rung, the dogs still
salivated. 

With conditioning, Ivan Pavlov paved the
way for conversational hypnosis.

The next scientist to contribute to conversational
hypnosis was Dr. John B. Watson. Watson was a
behavioral scientist. He was well known for taking
the basic principles that Pavlov had established
and applying them to humans. Watson studied people,
their behavior and how their behavior was
influenced by their environment. Conversational
hypnosis has a lot to do with behavior and Watson
was able to influence the evolution of
conversational hypnosis.

B.F. Skinner was another behavioral scientist who
contributed to conversational hypnosis. We live in
a stimulus response world and B.F. Skinner realized
that. He realized that if you have a certain
stimulus in the environment then it would illicit a
response. He took what Dr. Watson had done and
really took it to the next level. Skinner developed
what is known as “radical behavioralism” which
included thinking, perception and emotion in
studying behavior of humans.

Milton Erickson was one of the first to be an
advocate of medical hypnosis. He also was a major
contributor of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
which is a major component to conversational
hypnosis. Erickson believed in the power of
suggestion and that your subconscious mind is
always active, the basis of hypnosis.

Lastly, Richard Bandler and John Grinder were the
co-founders of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).
NLP is the description of different communication
techniques used to interact with people. NLP also
deals heavily on the idea of persuasion.

All of these people and their research has led up
to the idea and techniques of conversational
hypnosis. Conversational hypnosis is the idea that
you can persuade, manipulate, or control to get
what you want. Of course, conversational hypnosis
should only be used for good.

A Brief History of Conversational Hypnosis